Poor Man's Economy

Poor Man’s Economy

A few nights ago I was drinking and eating at home with some friends and I was sitting at my apartments gallery with Don Rafael an 83 years old, from the Dominican Republic who live in Puerto Rico; we were talking about how bad the economy is and how little the jobs are paying. The conversation we were having about savings was that today people only make enough money to live and is hard to save any money.

Don Rafael after hearing about the situation started talking about his days in the Dominican Republic and he say “Tito, if you think is hard to save money now imaging myself at the Dominican Republic years ago, I worked for 40 years and never could I save anything it was not until 1994 that I came to Puerto Rico and started saving some money, I started working at a Cuban restaurant in Isla Verde, Carolina, Puerto Rico, and started sending some money to my family in the Dominican Republic.”

I was surprise and asked “40 years with out saving or anything, but why?”

Don Rafael looked at the sealing as someone would when they are thinking and after a few moments continue” is not that I did not wanted to save is that I could not, I only made enough to live by, but when I came here I started working and saving money; I remember that I could buy my food for the week with only twenty dollars.”

I reacted surprise “twenty dollars only, for a week of food?” in a louder tone of voice I went “ What were you eating, just meat and potatoes?”

Rafael with the ease that only years can give a human being said to me “I did not buy anything expensive and I could always eat at the restaurant so I started saving and sending some money home, and after six years I was buying property at the Dominican Republic.”

I was kind of speechless after that and Rafael seeing my loss for words went on “Tito the most important thing for a man to do is never to give up, you have to keep fighting for what you want.”

After a few minutes of conversation I realize that this 83 year’s old man started saving for a house after fifty years of living in poverty, that he did not made any money back in his home country, but he never gave up and continue fighting for his dream. He came to Puerto Rico by himself where his financial situation was a little better and worked hard to obtain a house for his family. I learned a lot from Don Rafael that night, he was telling me how hard “is to get by in life but as a person you can never give up”. Life is hard for most people and there is not a manual that can tell people what to do, as a man we have to follow the way lay for us, but we can not for get about the people around us, they are also in their respective journeys’ and we are all along for the walk of life.

My life has not been easy but is also not the hardest, I have had plenty of opportunities that I have squandered, and I has taken myself more than 30 years to learn the beautiful things life has to offer and I believe that I have much more to learn and enjoy, I have learned to stop and think, analyze the situation and enjoy the moment because any thing that I do it will eventually have repercussions in my life and I have to keep fighting for success, my life and the well being of my family depends on what I do.